License Scandal Moves Downstate

The licenses-for-bribes scandal expanded Downstate on Thursday with the federal indictments of one current and one former Illinois secretary of state employee on charges they took payoffs in exchange for issuing truck-driving licenses.

The U.S. attorney for southern Illinois charged Gay Lynn Wielgus, 34, of Belleville, and Michael A. Fahey Sr., 55, of Bunker Hill, with conspiracy to commit mail fraud in separate schemes to collect bribes at driver's facilities in Waterloo and Jerseyville, both near St. Louis.

Wielgus is specifically accused of collecting money to buy political fundraising tickets for the gubernatorial campaign of George Ryan while he served as secretary of state, according to her indictment and a statement by Jim Burns, inspector general for current Secretary of State Jesse White.

The indictments are not considered part of Operation Safe Road, the federal investigation of the secretary of state's office, because that inquiry is being conducted by the U.S. attorney in Chicago. But Burns, whose office cooperated with the Downstate investigation, said the allegations follow the same pattern of collecting cash for commercial driver's licenses. "It's the same M.O.," he said.

Thirty-two people have been indicted in Operation Safe Road and 28 have been convicted, including 16 former secretary of state employees.

The charges against Wielgus allege that she automatically passed 10 individuals on written and road tests, allowing them to fraudulently obtain licenses to drive trucks. In at least six cases, Wielgus supplied fraudulent documentation that drivers passed tests qualifying them to drive tanker and hazardous material trucks, according to her indictment.

In return, at least six people made political contributions, according to the indictment.

The indictment doesn't specify to whom, but Burns said the money went to Ryan's campaign fund. The alleged cheating by Wielgus took place in February 1998, when Ryan still headed the office.

W. Charles Grace, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Illinois, declined to elaborate Thursday night.

Burns said he did not know how much money in fundraising tickets Wielgus collected. Illinois Board of Elections records indicate Wielgus contributed at least $200 to Ryan in 1996 and $300 in 1997 and nothing since then. But loopholes in reporting requirements make precise determination of donations impossible.

Wielgus began working at the secretary of state's office in 1995 but transferred to the Illinois Department of Transportation office in Collinsville in mid-May.

IDOT spokesman Dick Adorjan said the agency has a policy of suspending employees without pay for conduct unbecoming a state employee. He would not comment on Wielgus' case directly, saying he had not received a copy of the indictment.

Wielgus declined to comment when contacted at her home.

Waterloo, about 20 miles south of East St. Louis, is the fourth truck driver's license-issuing facility tainted by political-bribes scandal and the first outside the Chicago area. At the three other facilities, in Elk Grove Village, McCook and Melrose Park, managers and employees said they were pressured to sell Ryan fundraiser tickets, which prompted them to take bribes.

In those cases, employees agreed to fraudulently issue commercial driver's licenses to applicants sent in by trucking companies, driving schools and others in return for bribes. A combined $170,000 in bribes ended up in Ryan's campaign fund, prosecutors have said.

Fahey works at the Jerseyville office, about 40 miles north of St. Louis. According to his indictment, he allowed cheating on driving tests periodically beginning in 1992, including at least one instance in 1999, after White had taken over from Ryan as secretary of state. In at least one case, in 1993, he pocketed $100, according to the indictment.

Burns said Fahey apparently was driven by personal greed rather than political considerations.

Fahey still is employed by the secretary of state's office but will be placed on unpaid leave until his charges are resolved, said White spokesman David Druker.

Fahey could not be reached for comment.

White, who held a news conference with Burns in Chicago to discuss the indictments, said he was not aware whether any truckers licensed by Fahey or Wielgus had been involved in accidents.

Drivers who are believed to have obtained Illinois licenses through bribery have been linked to three fatal accidents that killed nine people.

Since succeeding Ryan as secretary of state in January 1999, White has retained many Ryan employees and has carefully avoided criticizing Ryan directly. But on Thursday, he pointedly noted that "I'm the first secretary of state ... who does not ask his employees to buy tickets, to sell tickets."

Ryan has denied pressuring employees to raise campaign money and blamed the scandals during his watch in the secretary of state's office on an entrenched "culture of corruption."

Ryan issued a statement commending Grace for the indictments and pledging that "if any ill-gotten gains made their way into the campaign fund, contributions in that amount will be made to charity immediately."

Burns sidestepped questions about whether the new allegations indicated that the bribery had been organized statewide throughout the secretary of state's office.

"I don't want to comment if there was some higher authority dictating this conduct," Burns said. "But I think what it does show is that in certain respects at that point in time, there was a systemic problem. It wasn't just isolated bribery."